UPDATE: Jury convicts refugee of rape in less than 2 hours

For the third time since 2009, a Middle East refugee brought to the Capital Region has been convicted of a sex crime in Albany.

In all three cases, the men were part of the same federally subsidized refugee assistance program — and two of them lived together.

The current defendant, Salam Al Haideri, 24, was convicted after jurors deliberated for 1 hour and 40 minutes Thursday. He faces 25 years in prison.

He was questioned at his rape trial on Wednesday by a prosecutor about conversations he had, after his arrest, with the foster parent he met through the program.

Earlier, his alleged victim had testified that Al Haideri slammed her 96-pound body into the street and raped her behind a trash bin in Colonie in the early hours of June 2 after they had met in a bar on North Pearl Street. Al Haideri, who faces 25 years in prison if convicted of rape and predatory sex assault, said sex with the 19-year-old woman was consensual.

They included Jacqueline Foster, 73, a Niskayuna grandmother who said she was Al Haideri’s foster parent in the refugee program.

On Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Chantelle Cleary questioned Al Haideri about inconsistencies in his accounts of the alleged rape and about conversations he had, following his arrest, with Foster. Cleary asked Al Haideri if he remembered speaking to Foster about how Foster drove around trying to find the scene of the alleged rape at Central Avenue and Vly Road.

“Isn’t it true that you and her discussed that there was a loading dock?” Cleary asked. “She told you there was a loading dock there, right?”

“I can’t remember what she told me,” Al Haideri said.

Foster, who sat in the front row with her husband during the trial, later told the Times Union that she took Al Haideri into her family’s home after fire struck the residence where he lived with Nehma. Al Haideri has lived with her for four years — and Nehma lived briefly with her family as well, Foster said.

She said she believes Al Haideri is innocent.

Asked if she has any regrets working with refugees, she said: “No. I just have a regret that this terrible thing happened. I’m sorry this happened to this young woman and I’m sorry that Salam is charged with this. I’m devastated by this.”

It was the charities that sponsored these a scumbags….. aren’t there enough poor people in this country for the charities to help???? Why do we have to import other countries problems? Why is it more fashionable to help foreigners rather than your own countrymen???

I think JustASec’s thought was that this was self-inflicted, i.e., we, in the form of our government, brought this guy here. The native Americans didn’t bring the Europeans here, the Europeans brought themselves here.